Planning a lesson is no easy task, especially if you're about to introduce a difficult topic. Sometimes, you need a little bit of something extra to really make your lesson flow. For this reason, ESL teachers usually use warmers and fillers. Warmers are used in lessons to ease the students into the topic you're going to present. Along the same lines, fillers are used to reinforce topics or follow up with extra practice for students. BusyTeacher.org has 363 warmer and filler worksheets to make your lesson run smoothly without skipping a beat.
The beauty of using warmers and fillers is that very little planning goes into using them. That’s great because it cuts your planning time by a lot, and also cuts out any awkward downtime in the classroom. These worksheets are helpful when it comes to grammar, vocabulary, writing, or even listening and speaking practice.
These warmer and filler worksheets can be used in several ways. Some can be used as discussion topics to get your students speaking. Some can be used to review grammar topics you have covered in the past. Another great warmer is a writing practice worksheet, which gives students sentences like “This morning I…” and students write down what they did that morning. There are endless possibilities to what you can do in your classroom with these worksheets.
Another great feature of these warmer/filler worksheets is that most can be used for all levels. However, if you need a worksheet for a specific level, the descriptions of all worksheets on BusyTeacher.org show the levels for which they're appropriate . You can even reuse them for your other classes of different levels. Not sure if a certain worksheet is right for your lesson? No problem! Just click on the thumbnail to preview the worksheet and see if it’s right for your class.
Don’t worry about registering or subscribing, since all worksheets on BusyTeacher.org are free to download, and there's no limit to how many you can download! You can use one or two of our worksheets for your lessons every day. All worksheets on BusyTeacher.org were created and submitted by fellow ESL teachers from all over the world. They've been used in classrooms, too - so rest assured that these worksheets are tried and true.
If you have some worksheets of your own that you've found useful in your lessons, why not share them with other ESL teachers to use in their lessons as well? Upload your worksheets to BusyTeacher.org by clicking the link at the bottom of this page titled “Submit a worksheet,” and join the hundreds of thousands of ESL teachers who already use BusyTeacher.org for their lesson planning needs.
Make BusyTeacher.org your number one online resource for worksheets by bookmarking us today. With 363 warmers and fillers, lesson planning will be a breeze. Get started by checking out our most popular warmers and fillers below.
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Small groups – choose Runner, Secretary, Correctors – 4 copies of a Dictation Text – around classroom.
When you clap secretary and runners must change.
Points for finishing fir ...
Words from everyday things on board.
Class guesses the object they're written on.
CRUSH-PROOF PACK (cigarette packet)
TWIST (ON/OFF) (jam jar)
BACK SPACE (computer)
THANK YOU (receipt)
PRESS ...
Start explaining some verb to your students by giving examples of its use in sentences, only replacing the actual word with 'coffeepot'.
Variation: have your students ask you questions using 'cof ...
Hangman is one of the most requested games. Place on the board the number of blanks for one word (example "police officer"). Then, provide clues about the word such as appearance, duties, associat ...
This is fun way of recycling vocabulary and much more! Make a list of words, phrasal verbs, expressions, etc, that you have taught your students recently. Next to each word that you can glue to a ...
This was a famous game show somewhere and it works with ESL students too: give 2 words, ie: "bread" and "baby".
They have to link the two words through a progression of word associations, ...
The teacher cuts up paper, preferably waste paper, into little squares, writes an English word on the paper, folds it in half, and hands it to a student. The student must NOT say the word on the p ...
Divide the class into 3 or 4 teams.
Choose at random a page from a monolingual dictionary and tell the students the letter with which all the words begin. Start reading out the definition (or def ...
This game is a great way to get your students involved in practicing their grammar both out loud and on paper.
You need three boxes (box tops, hats, or bins will work). The first should be labell ...
A dice and a dictionary (or list) of phrasal verbs with examples for each six students..
Write six verbs (e.g. GO,COME,GET,TAKE,PUT,GIVE) and six advebial particles (e.g.OFF,AWAY,OUT,UP,BACK, OVE ...
This is a vocabulary revision activity. The teacher chooses words to be revised. The class is divided into groups of 4. Each group chooses a secretary. The teacher starts by giving definitions to ...
Input: buying, selling and bargaining vocabulary.
Scene: you are in the desert and have these items – 1 slip for each person - 10 PERSIAN CARPETS, 5 LITRES OF WATER, 2 CAMELS, 8 TEAPOTS WIT ...
This can be helpful for reading, speaking and pronunciation as well as making your students feel less nervous about making mistakes.
Divide the class in two. They all have the same piece ...
Using a full sentence.
Put the empty spaces of all words in the sentence on the blackboard. Divide the class into two or more teams, and explain that they have to first guess and later on deduce ...
You will need:
tape,
paper,
scissors.
Begin by introducing all the body parts: Forehead to ankles, big toes to eyelashes, chin, cheeks, freckles, belly button, waist… Ne ...
Give one sentence to each student but not in the correct order.
Each student then reads out their sentence in turn.
By listening and understanding, the students have to put the sentences ...
Around the school building.
Write a sentence of about seven words with each word on a separate piece of paper. Leave the pieces of paper pinned to the walls in different parts of the scho ...
Imagine you're describing your home to a blind person.
You have to describe in (meticulous) detail everything about your house to your partner, s/he DRAWS IT. (Then it is the next person's turn) ...
This activity works well for intermediate to advanced students. This activity encourages students to elaborate beyond simple yes / no answers.
It also encourages them to get someone so engrossed ...
End of term game.
Teamwork – consultation. As well as general knowledge you can ask commonsense - trick questions to allow calculated answers – gives everyone a chance…
Which ...
You write nouns on slips of paper. You put the slips of paper in a hat and each student takes one. The student then reads the word on the slip of paper and has to tell the other students what it i ...
First of all using the same outline as you would a normal bingo sheet, fill in each block with questions.
For example, find someone who has a brother or a sister, find someone who can play the pi ...
"My name's George and I like beer."
Students and teacher do this activity together.
Student A announces her name and what she likes (or where she lives, what she does, where she's been...). Stud ...
Put the topic of the unit/topic to the board (KITCHEN OBJECTS; UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS, ADJECTIVES TO DESCRIBE A PERSON, IRREGULAR PAST TENSES, etc) and have Ss brainstorm what they know about the topic.
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